Campbell wastewater treatment plant to receive more than $1 million in upgrades

More than $1 million in renovations are planned for the Campbell wastewater treatment plant this year and in 2019.

Bill Coleman, office manager for the Mahoning County Sanitary Engineering Department, said the county would be accepting bids on the project Aug. 22.

The project’s target cost is $1,149,000 and will be paid for through use of sewer revenue bonds issued in 2017 to be repaid over 20 years.

“What we’re doing now is we’re going through a series of improvements and upgrades for treatment processes and their related equipment, including clarifiers, which are involved in the separation of solid wastes from liquid, belt filter presses, pumps, motor controls and panels,” Coleman said.

The upgrades are part of a decade-long effort to modernize the wastewater treatment plant and meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Pollutant Elimination System permit requirements.

In 2008, the Ohio EPA issued a consent order to Mahoning County’s Sanitary Engineering Department calling for improvements to the plant.

That order kicked off the first phase of the plant improvements, which culminated in 2016 and cost $3.7 million. The second phase is expected to finish in late summer or early fall of 2019.

Coleman said the decision to pursue the upgrades was a combination of the department’s response to the EPA order and a planned roll-out of upgrade projects that had been underway since they took control of the plant from the city of Campbell in 1999.

“We needed to do significant upgrades to the plant as it had been nearly 30 years since any major undertakings to address equipment and performance issues had occurred,” Coleman said. “We started phase one in 2013, and once we’ve completed phase two it will put the plant in a condition where it will be good for the next 20 to 25 years.”